The Internet has become a primary repository of knowledge, but the sheer volume of information has created a need to find and organize the digital information available (“digital curation”). Furthermore, many business and consumer uses of the Internet require collaboration based on this information. Many tools have been applied to the need.
Traditional web search allows an individual to find candidate results across the wide array of web information. Traditional web search engines have made it much easier to find information, but it is still a lonely process that does not allow for collaboration or organization of that data.
Wikis allow for collaborative editing of web documents, but are not integrated with the search process and require each user to provide their own content.
More recent social technology allows users to share information among users, but does little to facilitate group interaction within search in a trusted setting.
“Digital curation” continues to be a lengthy manual process where the search/research process is separated from the collaboration process. Current technology does not provide an integrated group search space suitable for collaboratively finding, organizing and/or accessing information.